neration perplexed
with no vague fears, worn with no infinite yearnings, perfectly happy
and healthy, and aiming at the noblest ends! How good it would be!"

"However," said Harry, "whether we believe or not, we can love."

"Then love wisely. I have read that St. Bernard thought that at the
Last Day we shall not be asked what we have done, nor yet what we have
believed, but _what we have loved_. That will indeed be a supreme test
of character."

Harry became very thoughtful, and clasped Adriana's hand tighter; and
just then Miss Alida's lawyer called, and she was compelled to leave
her company for a while. So the Professor and Peter began to talk of
Free Will and Calvinism, and Harry and Adriana withdrew to the
curtained window, where they sat in happy silence, listening to that
speech which is heard with the heart, and yet dimly conscious of the
argument in progress. This way and that way it veered, Peter holding
grimly fast to his stern plan of sin and retribution; the Professor
doubting, qualifying, extolling free grace, and averring he would
"consider the burning of all Calvin's books to be most justifiable
Libricide"--making the statement, however, with such sweet, calm good
nature, that it was impossible to be angry, even had Peter desired to
be so. But Peter was far too firmly fixed on his foundation to feel
anger; his opposition took the form of a sublime confidence, and he
closed the discussion with a sudden outburst of enthusiasm it was
impossible not to respect.

"Say what you will about the deadness of our faith, Professor!" he
cried, "there is life in the old kirk yet!"

He rose to his full stature with the words, his face kindling, and his
head thrown back and upward with the aspiring assertion. Adriana felt
the magnetism of his faith and stood up also, and the Professor
answered, gently:

"Mr. Van Hoosen, I respect your sentiments with all my intellect and
all my heart. One thing in your sturdy creed makes it omnipotent--the
utter absence of such an enfeebling thought as that this life was
meant to be a pleasure-house. How, indeed, could it fit into your
creed? and yet, to make life happy, to have pleasure, is not this the
question of existence to a majority?"

"Duty, not pleasure, was John Calvin's central idea. We are to obey,
not to grumble, or to desire. We are to receive all life's ills as
plain facts of discipline:

'Willing from first to last to take
The mysteries of our life as gi